The Hunter Captured by the Game
by Meidara
Summary: Remember that cute little redhead named Lime Gohan met just before his fight with Cell? Well she's grown up... even if Android 17 hasn't. This is a re-write of a story I started about a year ago, and worth the wait I hope.
1. Fallen

_The Hunter Captured by the Game_

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                   Rated: PG-13 

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun.  

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 1: Fallen

He walked the game trail as it cut through the darkening forest, his icy blue eyes flickering from one side to the other.  Tracking.  Searching.  Hunting.  

He lived for this.  

His black hair brushed over his shoulders slightly with every step he took, but he made not a sound.  He paused as a startled flock of birds took flight from some distance away, and he smoothly removed the rifle from his shoulder, the strap making a swish sound as it slipped across the leather coat he always wore now.  It was getting colder.

He silently slunk through the patches of light and dark being made by the canopy of leaves overhead.  He was sure his quarry was large, a bear or maybe even a tiger.  And he was in no mood to pass up big game today.  Not that he ever was really.  The bigger the better.  None of it was a challenge to him really, not that it ever had been, and that was the only reason he used a gun now.  It gave his quarry a slim chance of getting away.   

The hunter may have looked like a teenager, but he had been created to become killing machine, a bringer of death and chaos.  And he would have been had his creators dreams been realized.  As it turns out, the only person he ever killed WAS his own 'creator'.  The old fool had sealed his own fate the moment he had activated him and his sister.  No one controlled them, told them what to do.  And he had proved it.  

Life had been a grand game from the start.  Cities, cars, and even humans merely playthings.  The right was theirs alone.  But everything changed violently when he was absorbed by cell, and he himself had become a mere possession, a prize.  And when he was finally snuffed out of his existence when cell finally met his end, he welcomed oblivion.  Better to die than merely exist as someone else's pawn, powerless to fight back, to live as in individual…   

And then he was granted a restoration to life.  And he _still had no idea what to make of the generously bestowed gift.  The carefree and energetic attitude of his earlier days had left him forever.  His life had no purpose, meaning, direction, or place.  Humans were no longer simply weak helpless creatures there for his amusement, but they certainly weren't his equals.  He knew he didn't belong with them, even if his sister had married and had a child with one.  Something he still found almost impossible to believe.  Except for him and 18, there were no others like them, there never had been, so where could he belong except with himself? _

So now all he wanted to do was to hunt and be left alone.  A lone hermit, trapped eternally in the body of a teenage boy.  God, Fate certainly had a sick sense of humor.

A large apple tree came into view.  It was overgrown and dense, never having been cut back by human hands.  A few leaves rustled, despite the total lack of wind, and the android boy raised his gun up to eye level to take aim.  The muffled sound of the river flowing past it couldn't hide the sound of a limb groaning with a great weight from his incredibly sharp hearing, and when the next cluster of leaves shook he squeezed the trigger.  The hammer dropped and the air was suddenly filled with sound and smoke.  

And then 17 saw a flash of color as something fell heavily from the tree.

//got it//

He walked calmly over to what had fallen.  It was not a bear, nor was it a tiger.  It looked almost .. 

Juu's eyes widened a bit.  It was a human, a young woman, early 20's maybe, it was hard to tell through the curtain of long auburn hair splayed around and over her face like the feathers of a downed hawk.  A dark scarlet stain was seeping outwards from her side, leaving a crimson stream flowing past the windfall green apples lying around her.

He shook his head, not out of sadness or regret, but out of annoyance.  "What a stupid girl."  He then shouldered his weapon and started back the direction he came from.  Humans were always to find clever ways to get make themselves extinct. 

 He had gone only a few steps when he heard a weak mewing sound from behind him, and he turned to look back at the creature.  She was still alive, for the moment it seemed.

He gave an amused chuckle, oblivious to how inappropriate it would be considered to do so.  "So, she survived the fall.  Resilient little thing."  Then his brow creased in thought.  The fall hadn't killed her, nor had the initial shot, but she was still just as dead if she remained here. Not that it mattered.  If the wound didn't kill her, the unforgiving forest would.  

He was going to leave her where she fell.  So what if he was responsible for killing her?  It had never bothered him before, the idea of killing someone weaker than him.  Well, until he was 'killed' by someone stronger.  And after all, it was her own fault that she had gotten shot in the first place.

But when he looked at her again, her freckled face flecked with her own blood, her mouth drawn slightly into a grimace, and he reconsidered.  He could see she was fighting to stay alive.  She was just a frail, weak, worthless human woman… and yet she was fighting.  

He could admire that.  

Junanagou shrugged and picked the bleeding girl up effortlessly, tossing her none too carefully over his shoulder.  He grabbed his gun with the other hand and started back to his cabin.


	2. First Impressions

_The Hunter Captured by the Game_

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                   Rated: PG-13 

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun.  

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 2: First Impressions

A girl named Lime woke in a haze of pain, not able even to focus her eyes on the ceiling beams she was staring up at.  And when she tried to move the pain that shot up her side told her why.  Every breath hurt.  Everything hurt. 

She gingerly ran a finger over the bandaging wrapped around her chest and abdomen that was constricting her breathing to short fast pants instead of the deep breaths that would probably hurt even more.  She tried to swear, but her mouth was too dry, her voice frozen in her throat.  So since she couldn't speak or sit up, she tilted her head to the side to glance around the room as her vision cleared.  Nothing was familiar.  //Where the hell am I?//

She tried to remember what had happened.  She was in her favorite climbing tree near the river, the one she had always strayed into the forest to find because it had the biggest apples she had ever seen.  She had been climbing it as long as she could remember.  Could she have fallen from it?  She had once before, and ended up almost getting drown in the rapids.  She was lucky, as that Son Gohan boy had pulled her out.

Her brow creased in concentration.  She vaguely remembered a sound like a lightning strike as she was falling.  Could she have been shot?  She angled her head and squinted to look at a few flecks of blood, dried a rusty brown color on the front of her oversized shirt she was still wearing.  She HAD been shot!  Her surprise evaporated in a rush of white hot anger.  SOMEone had SHOT her!! And when she got a hold of the creep..  

She looked past her view of the shirt and it's damning stains to a light beyond.  A slightly open door.  And the shadow of a man blocking it.  "Whose there?"  she croaked out as she tried unsuccessfully to sit up, wincing as she did.

"Oh look, it's trying to get up," came the smooth cold voice.

The girls face contorted in both surprise and anger at the comment, //IT??// but a rush of nausea negated her responding as she flopped back into place on the cot panting for breath.

A low chuckle from the figure still poised in the doorway.  The bastard was getting off on this!  This time Lime put everything she had into sitting up to give him a piece of her mind, and didn't feel her hand slip off to the side, the rest of her following it onto the floor.  She'd never thought it was possible for something to hurt so much you couldn't scream…  but that's exactly what she found as she slipped onto the cold hard floor on her side, legs still propped at odd angles against the cot.  It was all she could do to keep from passing out or hyperventilating.  And still, he just, just STOOD there.  //Damn damnit damnit DAMNIT  DAMN HIM!//

As the painful throbbing moved from her chest to the edges of her limbs, pricking her like scores of needles, her breath became even more short and rasping, squiggling patches of light and dark dancing under her eyelids. And then she made the mistake of trying to push herself onto her back.  A jolt of pain that ripped though her and she never even had the chance to hear her own pained cry as a blissfully numb blackness consumed her and she exhaled deeply as her muscles relaxed.

Juu watched the girls struggle with passive features, and even after she had managed to cause herself enough pain that she passes out, he still made no move towards her.  As far as he was concerned, if she preferred to reside on the ground then so be it.

He took the time to put his rifle above the fireplace, to remove his coat and hang it over the edge of his overstuffed chair, and to start a fire, the listening the whole time as her breathing became even and steady.  She had slipped into a deep sleep.  Too bad she wouldn't stay that way till she was recovered enough that he could get rid of her.  

Then the though occurred to him that the floor was drafty, and a human could become sick if exposed to the cold.. Especially one who was already injured.  

If she died, she died, no skin off his nose.  But the idea of her getting sick and that only prolonging the amount of time it would take her to heal was enough to motivate him to pick her up easily by her arms and lay her unceremoniously back on the cot.  He made sure that she hadn't started to bleed again (what a mess that would make) and almost without thinking tossed the rough woolen blanket back over her before heading back over to his seat by the fire.  

He really didn't require much sleep.  It was more of a way to pass the time something than a biological need, so he didn't mind the idea of staying awake to keep an eye on the fire from his comfortable chair all night, and maybe doze a bit before he started his normal morning routine.  

It didn't even occur to him to wonder why he was planning on keeping the fire going all night.  After all, androids don't get cold.


	3. Soup

_The Hunter Captured by the Game_

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                             Rated: PG-13 

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun.  

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 3:  Soup

The next time Lime woke up, it didn't take her long to remember where she was.  The aching in her chest was a little better, but the light, which was filtered in through chinks in the cabin wall, was giving her a blazing headache.  And there was no way to get away the torturous little rays, shutting her eyes only turning the white light an angry red.  She craned her neck to the side as far as she could and then noticed a bowl sitting at her eye level on a stool next to the cot.  If she didn't know better, she'd have thought it had been left for her to find there by that man.

She scowled and closed her eyes.  Just how HAD she gotten back into the cot?  The arrogant stranger with cold blue eyes must have done it, and the idea of him touching her even to move her was less than settling.  He was probably the one who had bandaged her up too, and had probably felt her up in the process.  But somehow, she doubted it.  So then just what _was he up to?  He had mocked her, had seemed almost inhumanly cruel as he had treated her so shamefully.  But then again, if he was taking care of her how bad could he really be? _

She pushed the thoughts aside and tentatively reached up to take the bowl, wincing just a bit as her stiff muscles were stretched out.  It was full of something, and she was just hoping it was edible.  She wasn't hungry, but her throat was parched and she knew she needed to eat in order to get better and kick that guy's ass.

It took quite a long time and quite a bit of effort to push her up into a sitting position, her head pounding with the strain it put on her.  But finally she was sitting up gasping for breath and looking down into the bowl of murky colored liquid.  A broth of some sort maybe.

She raised the bowl to her lips and almost gagged as the liquid ran down her throat and a bit dribbled down the side of her mouth.  To call it soup would have been far too kind.  It tasted horrible!  Bland and tasteless and cold.  She wrinkled up her nose, made a 'yuck' noise and put the bowl back on the stool.  

"If you don't like it you don't have to drink it."

That voice again.  Her spine straightened up as she became aware of the presence sitting in the chair facing away from her.  She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there.  "It taste like something from the southbound end of a northbound bear."  Her voice was creaky from disuse, but the words were clear.

The man turned in the chair to face her.  "And how would you know that.  Are you in the habit of eating such things?"

She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him.  "It's cold!"

Juu raised and eye at her.  "You were asleep when I made it.  You should be grateful I saved you some."

Grateful was not how she was feeling at the moment to say the least, and it showed in the burn behind her narrowing eyes.  "You're the one who shot me aren't you?"  It was more an accusation than a question, and the inference was clear.  It was his _responsibility to care for her because it was his fault she was in such a state.  Juu caught this oh so subtle meaning, but decided to ignore it.  After all, he could have just left her there and saved himself the trouble, so as far as he was concerned he owed her nothing._

"Can I help it that you're such a large target?  Maybe if you didn't eat so many apples.."

Limes blue-green eyes narrowed to slits.  That did it.  She felt her blood boiling up in her once again with righteous indignation.  Did this ass hole even _care he's shot another someone?  Without thinking it through, she picked up the wooden bowl and what was left of the soup and hurled it in his direction with a yowl.  Had she been in perfect health she really could have nailed him from the close distance.  But as it was the bowl sailed harmlessly over his head to bounce against the wall behind him with a hollow defeated sound.  But the arch of liquid trailing behind it did manage to make contact, and she couldn't help the explosion of laughter that blasted forth as the brownish mixture splashed across his face._

This was a new experience for the android boy, having ice-cold broth dripping from his nose as the girl he's just been harassing laughed at him from a few feet away.  He wasn't sure how to react to this.  So he just stood there, watching her stoically as her giggles subsided into nervous titters and then silence.  

Lime wasn't sure why he wasn't doing or saying anything.  He just stood there, staring at her almost in angry shock.  It was... unnerving.  A bit of panic pulled at the corner of her mind, and she gulped down a knot forming in her throat.  Was he going to do something to retaliate?  After all, she was totally and completely at his mercy, and he didn't seem to possess a chivalrous nature.  "I'm… sorry bout that.  I don't know what came over me."

Juu stood looking at her, having watched her anger changing to amusement and now nervousness.  She didn't seem afraid of him, but still she was afraid just a bit of what he would do.  He could smell it, sense it.  And still, he did nothing.  

The feeling that was tugging at his insides was strange to him.  What was it?  He wasn't sure, but calling it anger just didn't fit.  It was causing him no small amount of distress, this unnamed mixture of other feelings rolling around in his head.  He finally turned his cold hard stare away and walked out the door, slamming it a bit harder than he usually would have, and leaving a shell shocked Lime sitting up in bed with a puzzled and somewhat worried look on her face.  //What did I just do?  Way to go girl, bite the hand that feeds you.//

Outside, Juu leaned against the frame of the doorpost, a look of sheer concentration on his face.  It's not that what the girl had done was so surprising to him.  Not at all.  What was surprising is that he had expected such a response from her, and had knowingly goaded her into it just to see what she would do.  And he couldn't for the life left in him figure out WHY he'd done it.  Even when he was angry with her, he was more fascinated than angry, watching the emotions he evoked in her with some degree of childish glee.  Something he hadn't felt in a long time.  More than angry, he had been amused and strangely satisfied by her reaction.  

A corner of his mouth tugged upwards in a smile.  It had been… fun.  The most fun he'd had in a long time.  He'd been so used to his self-imposed marginal existence that he'd almost forgotten what fun was supposed to feel like. 

He licked his lips, tasting the bland droplets of broth still adhering to them.  Now that he'd gotten a taste of what he'd been missing, he was hungry for more.

And he didn't mean the soup.


	4. Escalation

_The Hunter Captured by the Game_

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                                                                         Rated: PG-13 

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun.  

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 4:  Escalation

Lime had always heard the saying practice makes perfect.  So _how was it possible that every night the broth somehow manages to taste worse than the day before?  Could he actually be doing it on purpose?_

She had been there for 10 days, having no choice but to lay or sit in the little cot, drifting in and out of sleep while trying to recover her strength and heal.  

And every day she became more convinced her 'savior' had taken her home simply so that he could torture her more.  The endlessly long silences, the stifling boredom, and consistently bland food were not exactly making her feel right at home.  Actually, he seemed to be as welcome in his cabin as a cold draft in the dead of winter.  Not that she wanted to be there any more than he wanted her there.  

But sometimes, sometimes he almost seemed to delight in provoke her on purpose, a surprisingly well-placed insult or snide remark leaving her without a rational response.  He seemed to enjoy seeing her miserable and angry and in pain, and as far as she was concerned, the minute she was well enough to walk under her own power she was SO out of there.

And then came the morning she snapped.  Literally in the middle of a slurp of the flat and brownish substance she had been drinking her throat seized up and she choked and sputtered for a moment before regaining her breath.  "Damnit!  That's it, I can't take any more of this _crap!"  She kicked the blanket off her legs and eased herself up into a sitting position to look at the darkened fireplace a few feet away from her.  Might as well have been a few miles.  "I can make that.  I can..  wow the floor is cold!!"_

Using every piece of furniture between the fireplace and the cot, she got over to the hearth, and found it fairly easy to start a new fire from the hot bed of coals once she was there.  And there were a few jars of dried herbs that from the amount of dust covering them had obviously never been touched.  Spicing the soup would be quite easy.  The hard part was finding a way to turn the freshly killed and skinned rabbit hanging from the fireplace flu into something edible…

~~~

Juu entered the clearing around his little cabin a few hours later, his brow creased in curiosity.  He knew he had smelled an oak fire, but it would seem his suspicion that his 'guest' was trying to burn down his cabin was unjustified.  Still, that didn't explain why the obnoxious redhead had gotten out of bed in the first place.  "I'll put a stop to this, even if I have to tie that woman to the bed."

Several other thoughts of what he could do to keep her in bed, not all of them pristine,  played at the edge of his mind until he opened the door into the warmly lit interior, the distinct smells of roasted flesh and rosemary invading his senses.  She had been busy.

Lime didn't even notice the open door or the presence behind her until she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, the coolness of his skin soaking down through her thin shirt and flesh to send a chill along her spine.  

"And who said you could get out of bed?"  The voice sounded irritated, but no more angry than grateful.  And noting this irritated her enough to spin and face him from the stool she was seated on in front of the fire, swaying just a bit as she did.  "You could at LEAST say thank you ya jerk."

"For what?  Wasting a perfectly good rabbit?"

The corners of her mouth dropped into a stern frown.  "You don't need to eat any of this stew, the muck you left me this morning is still over there."  She gestured vaguely towards the corner where her cot was.  

"YOU should still be over there.  Your haven't recovered enough strength or common sense to be out of bed, that is if you ever had any common sense." 

Lime choked back a hasty response.  Despite the insult, he'd almost sounded concerned for her just then.  Then she remembered whom it was she was talking with.  Of course he wanted to keep her in bed, she made an easier target when lying down.  "I was just getting tired of that swill you've been feeding me!  Just because you missed with the gun you're trying to poison me?"

"You didn't have to eat it now did you?"

The petite woman stood, arms straight at her sides, hands balled into fists.  "Oh Sure, and I suppose I could have just eaten my blanket.  It couldn't have tasted any worse."  

Juu grinned.  She really was breathtaking when she was angry.  That and the backlight of the fire was giving him an excellent view of her… curves.  All her curves.  He caught himself before he let the thought take his mind off the task at hand.  That was getting her back into bed and keeping her there.

He leaned over, brushing past her to grab the wooden spoon she had been stirring the mixture with and stood, licking it with a thoughtful look on his face.  Then he smiled and turned his head at a playful angle to look at her.  And for a split second between feeling him brush up against her and seeing him smile she expected something akin to a compliment.  

She should have known better.

"This is easily the worst tripe I've ever had the displeasure of tasting.  You don't actually plan to EAT this?"  
  
Her mouth opened in a huff of righteous indignation.  //How DARE he.  How dare he even THINK such a thing!//  She felt her blood pressure rise, her face getting hotter as she her anger got the better of her.  "Why you selfish, thoughtless, egomaniacal asshole!!  I worked all DAY on this you just.. just… you…"

Juu's eyes blinked as the girl he had been watching so intently swayed to the side a bit, and before he could think he had caught her firmly against his strong chest, lest she could fall into either onto the cold stone floor or into the fire.  Sometimes he forgot just how fragile humans really were, especially this one, and he had no intention of letting her be injured further.  Lime mumbled something nonsensical as she almost passed out, but it was defiantly not meant sound grateful.  

Juu looked down at the top of her head as he held her, and then shifted his arms to swing one around the bend of her knees to pick her up and carry her back to her place on the cot.  He couldn't believe how warm and soft she felt.  Although he had carried her before, it had almost been like when he carried home a kill, just another game animal.  He decided that maybe it just felt different because she was alive.  Her eyes rolled under their lids trying to see what was going on, her lips pursed together trying to form coherent words.  And although she hung limply in his arms, her head rolled to settle in the crook of his arm.  And that was when he realized he had been standing there staring at her as he held her.  He scowled at the thought as she finally opened her blue-green eyes to focus and fix them on his face.

The realization that the jerk was holding her came a split second before she noticed how angry he looked.  Scary angry.  She tensed in his arms, not knowing what he was going to do.  

The look of fear showing in the face of the girl he was holding had a strange effect on the android boy.  One he wasn't immediately aware of.  Although he had been delighted to see her angry with him, the idea that he could make her feel so afraid tugged at his insides.  Was it pity, or remorse, or some other ridiculous name that humans insisted on dubbing their intangible feelings with?  He wasn't sure what it was, but he didn't like it.  And when he caught himself, as he was about to say something reassuring, that was even worse.  He tore his gaze away and walked quickly back over to the bed to drop her onto it none too gently, which her clearly expressed.  This also gave him an uncomfortable sting and he felt compelled to look down.  She looked more confused than scared now, but his eyes drifted down from the expression she wore to the thin nightshirt with the rust-colored stains where her blood had dried.  And there he could see a new stain, bright crimson even in the dim firelight.

She watched the black-haired man whose name she didn't know looking at her.  Was he TRYING to make her nervous, because if he was it was working.  He just wouldn't' stop looking at her.  And then he trailed his cold eyes and the accompanying scowl down her body, making her shiver from something other than the cold.  And almost too fast for her to see, he knelt down next to her bed and grabbed for the bottom edge of her shirt.  "No!"  She shrieked and darted her hands down to hold the thin cloth where it was, and to pull it over her feet if she could.  

Juu was totally taken by surprise.  He hadn't anticipated that reaction, and wasn't quite sure how to handle it.  But if she was bleeding again…  "Let go woman."  
  
"No you CAN'T!"  She was not about to be taken advantage by a sex fiend, even if he was the most attractive man she'd ever seen.  "Stay away from me!!"

"Juu grunted and grabbed the girls wrists one and then the other and easily pulled them over her head and out of the way with one strong hand.  This only seemed to make her screech and struggle all the more, which he tried to ignore as he pulled her long shirt up and away and felt along the clean bandages where the blood was soaking through.

Lime was beginning to cry now as she felt his cold hands traveling over the warm skin of her torseau.  "Leave me alone.  Don't touch me you bastard!  You let me go, you hear me!  I'll scream till I die, I swear I will!"

If she kept struggling like that she surely would do herself more injury, and he knew it.  "Calm down, your overreacting.  I'm just checking your injuries."

"Injuries?"  She didn't know what he was talking about, but something in the way he was speaking to her now convinced her to submit to him, just a little.  Not that she had much of a choice, seeing as he still had her arms pinned over her head.

Juu continued to probe and poke, but didn't see the source of the fresh blood.  If she had torn her wound again, the bandages would be soaked.  "Then where did the blood come from?"  He asked himself under his breath.

Now that Lime had ceased her bellowing, she finally realized what he was on about.  She stuttered a quiet response.  "The .. the blood on my shirt is from the rabbit.  When I was making the stew it got on me."

Juu angled his head at her.  Now that he wasn't so caught up in making sure she was in one piece, he realized it did smell like rabbit blood.  

"So it is."

He released his iron grip on her hands and stood smoothly to walk over to a small wooden chest on the other side of the room, living the girl on the bed blinking in surprise.  It was almost as if nothing at all had just happened.  "I'm sorry I misjudged you, it's just that I.."

"Save it."  His voice cut her off as he pulled one of his own black shirts from the chest.  "Put this on so that one can be washed.  Or burned.  It smells like something died in it."

Lime sat up with a wince and glared at him.  So much for a touching hallmark moment.  "SomeONE almost DID die in it!"  She rolled her eyes in exasperation.  "Ya know, you really are an asshole."  
  
He smirked at her and tossed her the shirt.  "Thank you."

She caught it.  "An arrogant bastard."

"I'm flattered."

"And a selfish PRICK!"

"Stop, I'm blushing."

"And a total IDIOT if you think I'm changing clothes in front of you.  So if you please, get the hell out."

Juu crossed her arms and leaned against the wall looking like he was having a heck of allot more fun than she was with the situation.  "Why should I please?  It's my cabin, my shirt, and you don't have anything I haven't already seen.  After all, who do you think put all those bandages on you?"

Limes eyes widened.  There wasn't a single insult strong enough to use on him.  "Get out get out just GET OUT!!!"  She picked up the bowl of cold soup from that morning and hurled it at him, missing him by a few good feet.  She was so angry she couldn't see straight.  She had been helpless and he had.. she had NO idea what he had done.  How could a man, any man, be so cold?  "Please get out!"  She felt tears welling in her eyes again, and she didn't want him to see her like that for some reason.  She didn't want him to see how weak and helpless she suddenly felt.

And somehow Juu understood.  He didn't feel the least bit sorry she was crying for no good reason, but he got it all the same.  Still, he was not about to be chased from his own home without getting in a word edgewise.  

He walked casually over to where the stew was bubbling over in its cast iron pot and ladled some into two bowls she hadn't broken yet.  And then he walked over to stand above her and hand one to her.  "You will stay in bed, even if I have to break your legs.  Understand me?"  She sniffled and buried her face in the black shirt she was holding.  He shook his head and turned to walk outside, shutting the door firmly after him.

As soon as she hears the sound of the door being pulled shut, she lost it.  All the pent up frustration and emotions that had been funneled into anger for the last few days took their true form as she cried into the soft cotton material.  "Damn him.  Why is he doing this to me?  How can he be so.. so cold!?"

Out side Juu could hear her sobbing, despite her attempts to muffle the sound and he shrugged.  Humans were so emotional sometimes.  Just one more reason he was a superior creation. 

He flew up onto the roof to scan the night sky with his clear blue gaze.  Fall was nearing its end, and it would be cold soon.  If the girl didn't recover within the next month, she might have to stay there for the duration of winter.  Not that he really minded the idea so much as he used to.  The last few winters had been exceptionally long and boring.  Having a little entertainment around might even be worth the trouble she seemed so good at causing him. 

That and she could cook.

He took a sip of the stew cooling in his palm.  It was quite possible the best he had ever tasted.  Not that he would ever tell her that.  After all, why ruin a perfectly good insult with an ill-placed compliment?  

He had to keep thinks interesting after all.


	5. Wake-up Call

_The Hunter Captured by the Game_

Author: Mei TwoMoons                                                                   Rated: PG-13 

I've read allot of pairings in Dragonball fics, but it came to the attention of me and my fellow muses (whom I adore) that both Android 17 and Lime, a little girl about Gohan's age from just before the Cell games, are usually left out of the fun.  

Special thanks to all my beloved muses, who kept my butt in front of the computer writing, and in particular Lexxie, who gave me awesome insights and inspirations for this piece.

Disclosure: I don't own any of these characters.  And if I did, would I be writing fanfiction?  I think not.

Part 5:  Wake-up Call

Had these two spent a fraction of the energy they over the next few days doing something other than getting on each others nerves, they may have prevented much they were destined to suffer through in the days to follow. 

But as well you may have ascertained, every day Lime waited till Juu had left to do whatever it was he did all day, feigning sleep so that she could say she hadn't heard him order her to stay in bed until he was out the door.  And in the evening she would have just insist she was cooking to keep him from the opportunity to 'poison her' or to 'bland her to death'.

For his part, Juu spent a good part of the day thinking of new and frighteningly clever ways to insult whatever it was she had cooked that day.  Or as he would say... had _scorched, cremated, parched, burned to a cinder, _or _undercooked beyond legal limits._  

Lime knew he was goading her. No one could be as bad a cook as he made her out to be, and he continued to leave her stew ingredients in the morning when he thought she was asleep.  She eventually came to realize that in some twisted, bizarre, looking glass way she even welcomed the criticisms.  The more devastatingly brutal his comments were, the more they seamed to take the place of a sincere compliment.

Of course, this knowledge did nothing to prevent her from ending every evening in a flustered rage; whilst he seemed to grow even smugger and more calmly aloof the madder he got her.

It also served to conceal from her what her conscious mind subconscious was growing more aware of every day.  She was a woman living in the same house, the very same room as a virile and incredibly attractive man.  At the start, she had seen not much more than his angular features, and coldly piercing eyes.  But as of late she had been able to distinguish emotions beneath his antagonistically smooth skin.  

Though it was just as flawless as the day she had first seen it, his marble facade couldn't hide everything from her.  She caught glimpses of emotions, with mostly consisted of amusement (usually at her expense), irritation (usually at his expense), and just once something akin to worry.  That day she had first tried to stand and had collapsed.  She wasn't sure she had really seen such an alien reaction there in his darkening eyes, but the more she thought about it the more she convinced herself that he had in fact been concerned for her.  And concern intoned caring, so could he actually care for her?  And why the hell did she care if he did? 

And maybe she was just going completely wacko.  That would at least explain the dreams she'd been having recently.

At first they had been nice, what she could remember of them.  A phantom embrace by an unrecognized man, a warm kiss on the skin of her neck, a low murmuring voice that comforted her to the very core.  It wasn't until this had gone on for several nights that she realized whose voice it was, soft and low, murmuring in her ear.  Her dream lover was none other than the man she spent every day cursing to the sun and the moon.  Well, he was and he wasn't.  It looked like him, sounded like him, but he was more tender, doting, loving even.

Yep, she was defiantly going crazy.

To even think that arrogant baka male was capable of such emotion was… unnatural.  But still, she had to remind herself she was seeing the real man and not her dream lover every time that cool sky-blue gaze fell on her.

All Juu knew that the woman had developed a tendency to get doe-eyed every so often.  Maybe it had something to do with how restless her sleep seemed to have become lately.  He only dozed lightly in the evening, his senses never totally shutting down, and so any time the girl would toss under her blanket or moan he was aware of it.  And having nothing better to do with eternity, he would often move closer to watch her eyes rolling under their lids.  Whatever she was dreaming, the slight smile that adorned her delicate lips never fled till she woke.

And it didn't take a rocket scientist to surmise what she was dreaming of, which of course made it all the more interesting to watch.  

Her pursued lips, the low smoky sounds she made at the back of her throat, the beads of sweat forming on her delicate skin.  It was really quite fascinating, and it did peak his curiosity as to just what it would be like if he was the one provoking those same reactions from her while she was awake.  After all, no matter how much fun it was constantly teasing and tormenting … he had never indulged that particular aspect of recreational activities.  He's never found someone worth of that level of his… attention.

And she now had his full and undivided attention.

He lost track of how long he sat there and watched her.  He's long ago shut off his internal chronometer as it was quite a distraction to always feel the days and years slipping away, but that wasn't why time no longer seemed a factor.  It was because as the boy sat watching the girl dreaming, his mind wandered, lingering over her.  The way she smell of flowering herbs, that pouty thing she did with her lips, and her long rusty-colored hair, waves and waves of it.  He had always seen it braided, except when it had come undone during her near-fatal fall from the apple tree.  But she must have just washed it because it smelled slightly of lavender and had been laid out flat on her pillow to dry. 

He reached out a hand to touch the silken threads.  It was still damp and unbelievably soft, like a coat of some strange and glorious animal that had inadvertently caught.

Or had she caught him?

He pulled his hand back as she surfaced from the shallows of her dream, the sensation of being watched bore though her heavy eyelids and tugged her uncomfortably back to consciousness.  And when she opened her eyes she found that she hadn't been imagining it, for the ice-blue gaze of her dream lover was still riveted on her from across the room.

"What…  are you… looking at?"  Her voice was weak and uneasy, still laced with the paralyzing effects of slumber interrupted.

Juu sat back in his chair, looking at her wipe the sleep from her eyes.  He wasn't quite sure how to answer, or even to answer at all.  So he said the first thing that popped into his head.  And big surprise, it was an insult.

"I was just watching you dreaming about me."

There was nothing else that he could have said that could have surprised and mortified her more than that.  The shock of it was enough to stop her heart beating.  She couldn't breath, couldn't move, and couldn't do anything to prevent the embarrassed flush that heated her face against the cool musty air.  How could he know?  There was no way!  "Why.. what do you know about anything!"  The blushing intensified and spread.

Now it was Juu's turn to be surprised.  He had expected a witty retort or to be ignored completely.  She usually didn't yell till he had pushed her well past her breaking point.  Which could only mean one thing, and the smirk that crept over his face told all he knew why.  He'd just hit the nail on the head without even knowing it.  //Very interesting//  

"So, was I good?"

If lime had thought she couldn't be any more insulted, she had just been proven wrong.  "Wha…  what!?"

The smirk broke into an all-out grin and he leaned forwards in his chair with a squeak.  "I asked you if I was good, when you were dreaming of me just now.  After all, you seemed to be enjoying yourself."

"Stop."

"Moaning the way you were…"

"Don't."

"And thrashing about.  It must have been the best you ever…"

"Stop it, **Stop it**, STOP IT**!!**"

She was now standing on her bed, the still warm blankets pooled around her ankles, her hair dancing around her shoulders like a flame in a brisk wind.  She was magnificent, no other word for it.  Eyes flashing, fists clenched at her side, lips pulled back into a primal snarl… a warrior goddess trapped in a weak and winsome human body.

Juu, sitting there watching her, suddenly realized something curious stirring within him.  A yearning that was new to him, and yet as old and familiar as the cravings for food and sleep and shelter, which even he still had. 

He wanted her.  

Wanted to crush her gently to him.  

Wanted to silence her contentions with his mouth on hers.  

Wanted to sink into her and make her scream for him over and over again.

And he always got what he wanted.

"I'll stop when you've answered my question."  He stood up and began walking towards her, a playful twinkle to his eye.

Lime groaned as she realized just what a spot she had gotten herself into.  It was obvious that he had been teasing her, which of course she would have realized if her thoughts hadn't been overwhelmed by her own smothered lust and outrage.

And now, anything she said or did was going to come back and bite her in the ass.  "I never said it was you, you just assumed it was.  Just because you a haughty, self-diluted _creep_ doesn't mean you're the only man on the planet you know."

Juu smiled darkly at her.  "True, but I'm the only one your alone with at the moment."

Lime choked back a gasp as she suddenly became aware just how bad the spot she was in was.  She was alone with this guy in a forest, miles from civilization without even a phone to call for help.  "You… you wouldn't dare!"

Juu just loved to be dared.  "Dare to do what?"  He stopped right next to the bed, head cocked curiously to the side to watch what she would do next.  Humanity had always been like a small animal caught in a trap to him, and now more than ever he was feeling playful.  He toyed with people the way a cat might toy with a mouse.  He was almost impatiently curious to see if this mouse had teeth.  "What are you daring me to do?"

Lime felt as though she would pass out.  "To touch me!"

"I've touched you before, those bandages don't change themselves.  And speaking of which, I think they are about ready to come off… since you seem to have gotten your strength back.  You must be pretty much healed by now."  And he reached out towards where the bandages lay under her shirt.  

Lime lost it.  She was tired, frustrated, frightened and outraged… and all she needed was an excuse to lash out.  And this was it.  Without a word she pulled back an arm and smartly whipped her delicate hand across his cheek.  

Juu froze.  //Well now that was interesting//  It didn't hurt him really, most likely it hurt her more.  But still, the sensation of being slapped by a beautiful woman was a new one.  He once again began to reach for her over shirt, only to freeze as her hand struck him again, just as hard as before.

Lime was too angry to care that her hand hurt, or that neither slap had managed to have any visible effect on him.  Her anger bubbled up and exploded a third time, this smack strong enough to make her wish she hadn't done it.  Her hand felt like it was ready to fall off.  Just who was this guy anyway?

Juu looked up at her face, flushed with emotions he couldn't possibly hope to understand and asked the burning question.  "Is that all you got woman?"

Lime was incensed, pushed absolutely beyond rational thought and logic as she flung herself with a yowl at him, intending to scratch out his laughing eyes and wipe that smirk off his damned flawless face.  Juu was ready for her, and caught her as she flew at him, being sure to carefully pin her arms uselessly at her sides.  

Lime was having none of it.  She continued to kick and snarl and snap like a wild animal, cursing him with an unbroken scream.  Well, until the moment he caught the last of the scream in his mouth as he kissed her.  

Lime's brain didn't register the sudden change right away, and her body continued to struggle in his arms until the heat of him started to seep into her, his kiss turning her own attack against her as easily as if he had flipped a switch.  He was kissing her!  And worse yet, she LIKED it.  It had started strongly, but had tapered off to a soft deep kiss, the kind that dotted her dreams like pinholes.

Juu wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but from the much more complacent reaction he was now getting from her he must have been doing something right.  He loosened his grip on her arms as he delved deeper, reveling in the taste of her, not unlike summer-ripened melon.

So this was why humans paired themselves off.

Lime couldn't believe this was happening.  It was so much like one of her dreams, she though she MUST still be asleep.  But she wasn't.  The masculine oak smell of him invaded her senses, fogged his perception.  It was bliss.  She pulled her arms free, but this time pulled him in closer to her, craving his touch.  It had to be real, for if a dream could be this intense she never wanted to wake up ever, ever again.

And when Juu sensed she needed a chance to catch her breath he pulled back to look possessively down at her flushed face and swollen lips.  "Now that's more like it." 

Lime blinked in surprise, but didn't have time to think before he dove in for another painfully deep kiss, this one leaving them both almost unable to stand.  It was by all accounts biologically natural to want to lie down at that point, but still something held her back.  A hunger to know.  To know just one thing.

"What is your name?"

For the first time in a very long time, Juu was truly and honestly surprised the simple question being asked by the woman in his arms.  And the warm sincere smile that seemed so new to his face told her so.

"Junanagou, and since were on the subject…"

"Your name is seventeen?  Feh, that figures."  At this point, it would have taken a hell of a lot more that that little tidbit of information to shock her.  There was just so much about this man she was dying to know, if he would just let her in.  And you can bet she was more than willing to try and find out.  "My name is Lime, nice to meet you."

Juu stood, enjoying the feeling of holding the game that had in the end captured the hunter.  "Lime, as in one of those seasons you use in your soup?"  He was taunting her again, but more gently this time.

Lime leaned in towards him seeking a third kiss.  "You could say that."

"I just did."  

"Jerk"

"Stubborn woman, just kiss me already."

Lime laughed as Juu pulled her up to brush his lips over hers, his hands cupping the small of her back.

And in doing so finally realized just how much spice had been missing from his life… not to mention his soup.

FIN

Now I know what you're thinking, and yes I could continue this story and add in more angst, explosions, cool stuff like that.  But as this is my first attempt at an all out romance, even if it's not all that bittersweet or sappy, I think this is a good place to end it.  The rest I'll leave up to the true romantics out there.


End file.
